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Neuromorphic Photonics
Primer on Photonics
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https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.1201/9781315370590-3
Paul R. Prucnal, Bhavin J. Shastri, Malvin Carl Teich
Published online on: 08 May 2017
How to cite :- Paul R. Prucnal, Bhavin J. Shastri, Malvin Carl Teich. 08 May 2017 ,Primer on
Photonics from: Neuromorphic Photonics Routledge.
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3 Primer on Photonics
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3.1 WAVEGUIDES
Most of us have an intuitive understanding of light as a geometric ray: some-
thing that travels in straight lines in a uniform medium. Interfaces between
different materials (e.g., glass and air) can alter the direction of these rays. In
this section, we will focus on light propagation in waveguides: special material
structures that confine and direct the propagation of light with near perfect
efficiency. Waveguides can be thought of as wires for light; they allow us to
send optical signals over long distances in fiber optics and allow the construc-
tion of larger photonic circuits and systems on integrated chips. Waveguides
are poorly explained by the intuitive ray description, so a more appropriate
description of light as a wave is introduced. Figure 3.1 summarizes some of
the main results associated with waveguides.
a) b)
Backward guided modes ω Forward guided modes
TE0 TE1 TE2
Light cone TE2
ckx
ω≥
nclad
nclad y TE2 cutoff TE1
ckx
ω=
ncore x TE0 ncore
Figure 3.1 (a) A slab waveguide (WG) in 2D with a dielectric cladding and core
where ncore > nclad . x is the propagation direction. Three transverse electric (TE)
modes are plotted in red. TE means the electric field vector is in the z direction. At
a given frequency, there are a discrete number of field profiles that satisfy boundary
conditions. (b) The dispersion diagram for the slab WG, plotting frequency (ω) vs.
propagation wavenumber (kx ). Blue curves correspond to different modes. At a given
ω, there are a finite number of supported modes, which have symmetric forward and
backward propagating versions. Guided modes cannot exist within the so-called light
cone (yellow region) because they would leak out into the cladding. The fundamental
mode TE0 is always present in dielectric WGs, but higher order modes TE1 , TE2 ,
etc. have minimum cutoff frequencies, which depend on the relationship between
frequncy and WG dimensions. This means single-mode waveguides can be designed
below the cutoff of the second mode.
45
46 Neuromorphic Photonics
Clearly, a single straight waveguide is not useful for building larger systems.
Single-mode waveguides can be extended with three key elements: bends, cou-
plers, and interferometers. While simple, these three elements are intimately
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3.1.1 BENDS
In a photonic Integrated circuit (PIC), waveguides guide light between dif-
ferent components of the PIC. Bent waveguides are important in PICs for
their use as couplers, or even filters and delay lines. For effective PIC systems
and the integration of multiple components on a semiconductor wafer, we
need waveguides that have sharp bends to quickly change wave propagation
direction in a short distance with low loss. Small bends with minimal loss
can be obtained due to the index contrast between the core and the cladding
materials. Bends in waveguides with more than one mode cause a change
in the propagation direction, so that the propagation wavenumber of modes
is not conserved, meaning that intermodal mixing can occur. This is one of
the primary reasons why single-mode waveguides are desirable for fibers and
waveguides.
If the waveguide bends too quickly or tightly, then total internal reflection
(TIR) will not guarantee that the light stays inside the waveguide. This leads
to an effective minimum bending radius allowed for a certain waveguide cross-
section design. The minimum bending radius is a key determinant of the
compactness of PIC layouts. Bending loss is also a limiting factor in the design
of microring resonators [3], which are further described in Section 3.3.
(a) Directional cou- (b) Two-mode inter- (c) Multi-mode in- (d) Y junction
pler ference coupler terference coupler
to directional couplers, but they have no gap in their coupling region. The
coupling region supports two modes (symmetric and antisymmetric), which
beat when propagating.
Multi-mode interference couplers (MMI), are fundamentally different from
the above coupling schemes because they operate based on a reimaging effect
in specially designed two dimensional cavities. Energy is not transferred simply
between two interacting modes but is injected to a large area with reflective
boundaries. In a 2 × 2 MMI coupler, light injected in one input waveguide
will diffract and interfere with reflections, which results in the formation of
several focal planes. The image of the input mode reappears after beat length
L. Power is completely transferred to the opposite mode at length L/2, and the
pseudoimage at L/4 is an equal distribution between the two sides. The output
waveguides are placed so as to correspond to the refocused pseudoimage of
the input modes.
Y-junction splitter/combiners come in two-mode or multi-mode forms. Es-
sentially, due to their geometric symmetry, they act as precise 3 dB splitters,
which are often convenient for the requirements of interferometry. However,
transmission efficiency and compactness require careful design, as in Ref. [5].
For a given waveguide design (fixed effective index and mode profile), the
coupling rate of directional couplers is determined by the gap width of the
coupling section. The power splitting ratio after one pass through the direc-
tional coupler is then fixed by the length of the coupling section. Directional
couplers are ideal when a small coupling ratio is required, making them ideal
for microring resonators. The coupling ratio of directional couplers is easily
controlled by simply changing their lengths. Because the beat length is a non-
trivial function of waveguide geometry, mode distribution, and gap width, in
practice additional simulation or calibration experiments must be performed
to achieve precise coupling ratios.
MMI couplers and Y-junctions are more appropriate when precise coupling
ratios are desired. MMI couplers with uneven field splitting distributions can
be designed but can become much more complicated to design when non-
rectangular coupling regions are considered. Because the power splitting is
based on the self-imaging property, only discrete coupling ratios are available
(85:15, 72:28, 50:50, 27:73, 15:85, and 0:100). Several sources have proposed
modifications for achieving arbitrary coupling ratios by using two MMI sec-
tions [6], angled MMI sections [7], patterned MMI sections [8], or slotted MMI
Primer on Photonics 49
sections [9]. MMI coupler imaging length depends on the lateral dimension of
the MMI region, which in turn depends on the separation of input waveg-
uides. Once this dimension reaches a lower limit, there is very little flexibil-
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ity to change the size of the coupling region. Several approaches for further
shrinking MMI elements have been proposed, including access waveguide ta-
pering [10, 11] and MMI section tapering [12].
For directional couplers, the beat length is determined by the propagation
constant splitting ∆β between the symmetric and asymmetric supermodes.
The symmetric eigenmode is concentrated near the center of the waveguide,
while the asymmetric eigenmode has zero intensity in the center. That is why
a very narrow gap of low refractive index material increases the coupling rate
and in turn reduces the required length of the coupling region. On the other
hand, directional couplers that are very compact will lose significant energy
to mode conversion loss because the index profile changes rapidly, nonadia-
batically. The extent of this inefficiency is directly linked to the beat length,
creating a tradeoff between compactness, efficiency, and strong coupling. TMI
couplers are very similar to directional couplers, except without the center
gap to increase mode splitting. For this reason, they are not very compact
in the straight geometry. Because of the relative freedom in fabrication bent
TMI couplers with odd but compact shapes have recently been proposed [13].
Coupling always includes some conversion between different guided modes.
If that conversion occurs non-adiabatically, energy will transfer into other
modes, some of which may not be guided. In the case of directional couplers,
that means the waveguides must transition between decoupled and coupled
regions over a long distance, or loss will occur. Traditionally, directional cou-
plers have been viewed as the simple low-loss, controllable coupling ratio de-
vice; however, the adiabatic requirement vastly complicates microring design
situation by creating a fundamental tradeoff between quality and compact-
ness. Rings with very small mode confinement and quality factor can only
be very weakly evanescently coupled to bus waveguides. For high-Q filtering
applications, this is not a large issue; however, this tradeoff poses a poten-
tial problem for high-bandwidth nonlinear signal processing. This issue was
studied in detail by [14].
Mode conversion in MMI couplers is very different in that it is discrete.
Input waveguides immediately enter a multi-mode section instead of contin-
uously approaching one another. The input field distribution can be decom-
posed into the eigenmodes of the coupling region, though not all of these
modes are guided. The guided eigenmodes form a subspace that is lossless.
This non-adiabatic conversion from single to multi-mode can therefore be
efficient only if the component of the input field orthogonal to the guided
eigenbasis is minimized. Loss minimization in MMI couplers thus becomes a
process of lateral wavefunction engineering, which can come into play dur-
ing low level waveguide design. There are many techniques under investiga-
tion for improving the mode matching properties including tapered access
50 Neuromorphic Photonics
two waveguides must be very near one another to experience a significant cou-
pling rate. For example, to obtain a strong enough coupling rate for compact
devices, photonic nanowires might need to be 100–150 nm apart. If they are
etched to a depth of 240 nm, this gap feature has a high contrast ratio. De-
pending on the fabrication process, non-idealities in the coupler geometry
can be introduced in the acute angle formed by the incoming and outgoing
waveguide pairs. It can become partially filled in by unetched silicon or a high
surface tension liquid. Fabrication of MMI devices is the least demanding of
the coupler geometries due to low contrast ratio.
3.1.3 INTERFEROMETERS
Interferometers couple light from a single source into two paths before recom-
bining them. Since coupling is sensitive to phase, optical path length differ-
ences between the arms are reflected in output powers. In converting phase
information to amplitude information, interferometers are key tools in sensing
small changes in refractive index. The Mach–Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) is
the most common interferometer used in integrated circuits, particularly for
electrical modulation of optical signals. MZI modulator devices will be cov-
ered in Section 7.3. Let us now analyze the basic theory in a simplified MZI
pictured in Fig. 3.3.
n 1L 1
E1,in r2=50% r2=50% E1,out
n 2L 2
E2,in E2,out
Figure 3.3 A Mach–Zehnder interferometer with two 50:50 directional couplers that
split power evenly. The two arms have optical path lengths of n1 L1 and n2 L2 , re-
spectively. The output power coupling depends on the optical path length difference
of the arms.
that cross the coupler. Due to power conservation in a lossless coupler, there
2 2
is a relationship between t and r so
√ that t + r = 1. For the purposes of this
MZI example, we set r = t = 1/ 2. The waveguides between couplers can
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The power transfer function depends on the cosine of the phase difference
between the two arms. Since loss was not modeled, the output from port 2
would be the complement of that of port 1. It can be seen from this expression
that interferometers can be useful for detecting minute effects. To reach a π
phase shift required to go from 0% to 100% transmission, for example, requires
an effective length change of wavelength π/2, which is much smaller than the
arm length L.
3.1.4 MODULATORS
In an optical communication system, it is necessary to first convert the analog
electric waveform into some property of an optical wave in such a way that
it can be recovered by an optoelectronic detector, thus making it suitable to
transmission through optical fibers and waveguides. This is called modulating
the signal onto an optical carrier. A carrier wave is a pure, continuous optical
wave with a unique wavelength. The Fourier spectrum of the modulated signal
is centered around the carrier wavelength with a spectral width of at least as
much as the modulating signal. The modulation changes some property of the
wave—usually its amplitude, phase, or frequency—to encode the data being
transmitted. There are three main strategies for modulation:
• Amplitude modulation changes the power/amplitude of the carrier wave
(originally a sine wave) to be reflective of the value of the input signal.
Figure 3.4 Modulation of an input signal. A carrier wave, in this case an simple
sine wave, is modulated by a RF signal. The output shown is a modulated carrier
wave.
3.1.5 MULTIPLEXING
As one can imagine, it would be highly inefficient to have one fiber dedicated
for each optical communication channel. Multiplexing takes multiple inputs,
combines them into one single signal for transmission, and then recovers the
original signals at the receiving end. Multiplexing allows for signals to be
transmitted much more densely, thereby greatly decreasing transmission costs.
When a channel is multiplexed, its large bandwidth is broken down and shared
between multiple virtual channels with lower bandwidths.
One of the most common multiplexing techniques used in optics is wave-
length division multiplexing (WDM). Different wavelengths of light—or dif-
ferent colors—can easily be combined and then split once again. WDM mul-
tiplexes different signals onto different carrier wavelengths. Filters for certain
wavelengths are inserted before receivers, so that they can direct the wave-
length carriers to the correct receiver. This method takes advantage of the full
transmission bandwidth window of optical fibers or waveguides. WDM also
adds flexibility into communications systems. Data channels can be injected
or extracted from the transmission path at any location by using add-drop
multiplexers. These multiplexers make it possible to reconfigure the system
to provide data connections for a large number of send and receive nodes.
The second major type of multiplexing used in optics and electronics is
time division multiplexing (TDM), where separation is based not on wave-
length but on difference in arrival time. In TDM, different signal streams are
Primer on Photonics 53
WDM
K2 ¥3 14 15 .f6 #7 H8
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Fre quenty
~----~~~~~~--------------,!
fa·,o.•
Figure 3.5 Wavelength division multiplexing, where different signals are modulated
onto carriers of different wavelengths.
interleaved in the time domain of a single carrier wave to form a high speed
compact signal. At the receiver end, an ultra-fast clock and data recovery
extracts the data. This technique differs from WDM, requiring very fast seri-
alizers/deserializers to function effectively. TDM is heavily used in fiber optic
telecommunication links and metropolitan networks.
TOM
Header ~1 A2 #3 34 Header fl
...
1/lsl'f Time
'---~~~---------
fl.,
1
3.2 PHOTODETECTORS
Optical Absorption
In its essence, optical absorption is a process during which electrons absorb
energy in the form of light and transfer this energy to an electrical circuit.
This conversion is fundamental to the operation of photodetectors.
Electrons absorb incident light in the form of photons, whose energy is
given by E = hν. Given the energy band structure of the material, some
electrons transition to the conduction bands from the valence bands, creating
a free electron-hole pair.
54 Neuromorphic Photonics
Ip = RPin , (3.6)
PN Junctions
The effects of optical absorption are particularly interesting in P-N junctions.
P-N junctions consist of two oppositely doped semi-conductor materials inside
a single semiconductor crystal. When the p- and n- type semiconductors are
joined in a PN junction, the high concentration of electrons from the n-type
semiconductor diffuses to fill holes in the p-type semiconductor, leaving posi-
tively charged ions in the n-region and negatively charged ions in the p-region.
Together, this charged region consisting of a high density of positively charged
ions at one end and negatively charged ions at the other is called the depletion
region (Fig. 3.7). As a result of the charged ions, there is a potential difference
between the ends of the space charge region, which creates an electric field in
the region directed from the positively charged ions to the negatively charged
ones.
Reverse Biasing
A PN junction is said to be in reverse bias when its p-side is connected to
the negative terminal of a voltage source and the n-side is connected to the
positive terminal. Under the influence of the external voltage, conduction
band electrons on the n-side are pullled towards the positive terminal, with
holes on the p-side simultaneously moving towards the negative terminal,
widening the depletion region, as observed in Fig. 3.7. This widening increases
the magnitude of the internal potential difference of the depletion region,
strengthening the electric field across it.
3.2.1 PHOTODIODES
When light is incident on one side of such a reverse biased PN junction, e/h
pairs are created through optical absorption. The free carriers produced in
the depletion region are accelerated by the strong built-in E field, with the
electrons and holes being swept to opposite sides of the region. This flow
of charge carriers produces current. Since this current is proportional to the
power of the incident light, measuring it can give us an idea of the incident
optical power. This is the basic principle of p-n photodiodes.
Primer on Photonics 55
Vo
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__,__II'_
(a)
(6)
Diode Metrics
For a photodetector, bandwidth is a measure of how fast it responds to vari-
ations in incident optical power. This rate of response can be inferred from a
metric called rise time, which is defined as the time it takes for the current
output to increase from 10% to 90% of its final value when the optical power
of the incident light is instantaneously changed.
Mathematically, the rise time of a photodetector is given by:
where, τRC is the RC time constant of the equivalent circuit, and τtr is the
transit time. The transit time accounts for the time it takes for the carriers
generated through optical absorption to be collected and register as current.
Here, it is noteworthy that reducing W, the width of the depletion region will
reduce τtr , as the carriers have to traverse a shorter distance to be collected.
From the metrics above, it is intuitive that the bandwidth would be inversely
related to the rise time, and therefore, to the sum of the transit time and the
RC time constant. This intuition is materialized in the following definition of
a photodetector’s bandwidth, ∆f :
1
∆f = . (3.8)
2π(τtr + τRC )
The bandwidths of p-n photodiodes are often limited by the transit time,
τtr , since τRC can be engineered to a minimum value by minimizing parasitic
56 Neuromorphic Photonics
capacitance and resistance. For a p-n photodiode where W is the width of the
depletion region, and vd is the drift velocity, the transit time is given by:
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W
τtr = . (3.9)
vd
Thus, in order to maximize bandwidth, W and vd would need to be opti-
mized. W depends on the doping concentrations of the two semiconductors
and can be controlled to an extent through them. vd , on the other hand, can
be increased by increasing the applied voltage, which accelerates the free car-
riers. However, vd can only be increased up to a point, called the saturation
velocity, which is the maximum vd that a free carrier can attain.
Diffusion Current
So far, the photodetector principles discussed only account for carriers pro-
duced in the depletion region that drift under the influence of the electric field.
However, optical absorption also occurs outside of the depletion region which
results in a diffusive component to the photocurrent. Electrons generated on
the p side and holes generated on the n side have to diffuse to the boundary
of the depletion region before they can drift under the influence of the built-
in field. Diffusion is an inherently slow process and is the bottleneck in the
response time of a photodetector. This also distorts the temporal response of
a photodetector, as shown in Fig. 3.8.
Q)
~
0
Optical
a. f-pulse
"'u
~
0
PIN Detectors
One way to increase the effective width of the depletion region is to insert a
piece of intrinsic semiconductor material between the p and n semiconductors,
to form a structure called a p-i-n photodiode. Under reverse bias, most voltage
drops across the intrinsic region due to the resistance offered by its intrinsic
nature. This leads to a strong electric field being set up in the i- region,
effectively extending the depletion region, as shown in Fig. 3.9.
-------lV-----~
Figure 3.9 PIN detector for minimizing diffusion current distortions. Republished
with permission of John Wiley and Sons, Inc., from Fiber-Optic Communication
Systems (2002) 3rd ed. by G. P. Agrawal Ref. [18]; permission conveyed through
Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
Extending the depletion in this manner leads to most of the optical power
being absorbed in the i- region of the semiconductor, as a result of which
current from carrier drift dominates that from carrier diffusion. Their abil-
ity to reduce diffusion current makes PIN photodetectors preferable to those
consisting of simply PN junctions.
The origins of shot noise lie in the fact that an electric current consists
of a stream of a discrete number of electrons generated probabilistically at
random times. Thus, photodiode current generated when constant optical
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Here, S(f ) is the spectral density of shot noise, which is modeled as white
noise (i.e., constant spectrum) and is therefore given by S(f ) = qIp between
−∆f and +∆f , where q is the electron charge. Then, the noise variance, or
noise power due to shot noise is given by:
Z ∞
σs2 = i2s (t) = Ss (f )df = 2q(Ip + Id )∆f, (3.12)
−∞
where ∆f is the effective noise bandwidth of the receiver, and the dark current,
Id , is the leakage current that flows when no light is incident.
At any finite temperature, electrons are constantly in random motion. This
motion in a resistor is observed as a fluctuating current in a resistor. In a load
resistor such as one at the front end of a receiver, this fluctuation is observed
as noise, which is called thermal, Johnston, or Nyquist noise. Mathematically,
this is treated as a stationary Gaussian random process which is white up to
frequencies as high as 1 THz. Its two-sided spectral density is given by:
2kB T
ST (f ) = , (3.13)
RL
where kB is the Boltzmann constant, and RL is the load resistor. As above,
the noise variance due to thermal noise can be calculated by integrating its
spectral density over all frequencies:
Z ∞
4kB T
σT2 = i2T (t) = ST (f )df = ∆f. (3.14)
−∞ RL
Thermal noise ocuring in other electrical components in a receiver, such as
amplifiers, invariably add noise to the system. This is accounted for using the
following formula:
4kB T
σT2 = Fn ∆f, (3.15)
RL
Primer on Photonics 59
4kB T
σ 2 = (∆I)2 = σs2 + σT2 = 2q(Ip + Id )∆f + Fn ∆f, (3.16)
RL
where variances from the two have been linearly added since the two have
approximately Gaussian distributions.
Signal to noise ratio (SNR) can be defined as the ratio of the signal power to
noise power. In photodiodes, this quantity is naturally affected by the presence
of the two types of fundamental noise discussed above, shot noise and thermal
noise.
signal power Ip2
SNR = = 2. (3.17)
noise power σ
Using Ip = RPin , the SNR of a detected signal is given by:
R2 Pin
2
SNR = 4kB T
. (3.18)
2q(RPin + Id )∆f + RL Fn ∆f
Detector SNR is a key point of analysis for energy use in photonic links
since optical signals are always ultimately detected. Linear optical devices,
such as filters, and transmission modulators, such as MZI modulators, have no
theoretical minimum optical power needed to perform their functions. Their
impact on noise and signal power is therefore quantitatively understood in
regard to the detected SNR. Supposing the introduction of an optical device or
effect causes power attenuation. The performance of this device can be stated
as a link power penalty, or the additional optical power required to recover the
SNR prior to the device’s introduction. From the expression for detector SNR,
we can see that there are two primary regimes of operation. At high average
photocurrent, RPin , the system is typically in a shot noise-limited regime,
in which SNR increases linearly with average photocurrent. For low received
photocurrent, thermal noise limits SNR, which increases quadratically with
average photocurrent.
than the literal two mirror cavity, yet its behavior is completely analogous.
E3 r E4
E1 E2
(a) A Gires- (b) A microring resonator with cou-
Tournois cavity pling parameter r. Four complex elec-
with one par- tric fields are present in the one-way
tially reflecting coupler, but E4 loops back into E3 .
mirror of
reflectivity r.
Figure 3.10 Two types of optical cavity that exhibit the all-pass characteristic. The
steady state intensity of the outgoing field equals that of the incoming field, but
effective phase shift and circulating intensity buildup is wavelength dependent
Taking the coupler Eq. (3.2) and adopting the port labeling shown in
Fig. 3.10(b), this coupler can be described by
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E4 (ω) r it E3 (ω)
= . (3.19)
E2 (ω) it r E1 (ω)
where
2πnL ωnL
φ = kL = = , (3.21)
λ c
and L is the distance around the ring, a is the ratio of power remaining after
one round trip of propagation losses, n is the effective index of refraction, and
λ = 2πc/ω is the vacuum wavelength.
The complex transmission between the input (E1 ) and output (E2 ) fields
can also be expressed.
X∞
E2 m at2 eiφ
= r − at2 eiφ areiφ =r−
E1 m=0
1 − areiφ
r − aeiφ i(π+φ) a − re
−iφ
= = e . (3.24)
1 − areiφ 1 − areiφ
There are several features of this equation that grant key intuition into
the behavior of coupled MRRs. The magnitude-squared of the complex trans-
mission will be one as a approaches one, which should make sense because
there is only one way for power to leave the system. The power transmission
is minimum on resonance (φ = 0), where the buildup factor is maximum. The
62 Neuromorphic Photonics
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(a) The effective phase transfer Φ between the input and output of an
all-pass microring (Eq. (3.26)).
16
Power buildup factor
0 2 3 4
Detuning (rad)
(b) The power buildup factor B of the circulating wave (Eq. (3.23)).
Figure 3.11 Linear microring transfer functions as a function of the detuning φ, the
phase acquired by a single-pass. φ is linearly related to applied optical wavelength,
so the spectral response of both values is a scaled version of the same plots. r =
0.9, a = 0.99
2 1 if a → 1,
E2 2 2
= a − 2ar cos φ + r =
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E1 (a − r)2 (3.25)
1 − 2ar cos φ + a2 r2 if φ = 0,
(1 − ar)2
and
r sin φ ar sin φ
Φ = π + φ + arctan + arctan . (3.26)
a − r cos φ 1 − ar cos φ
Equations (3.23) and (3.26) are plotted in Figs. 3.11(b) and 3.11(a), re-
spectively, for an example MRR with r = 0.9 and a = 0.99. Notice that the
circulating field is about 19 times more intense than the input power at per-
fect resonance. Also at this resonant point, the slope of the phase transfer
function is much greater than 1, meaning it is very sensitive to changes in the
single-pass phase accumulation.
It is worth summarizing qualitatively the important attributes of microring
behavior. First, the variable φ determines resonance conditions, and it depends
on both λ and n. That means the MRR is wavelength selective; also, its
resonance spectrum will change if n is altered by some means. Second, the
buildup factor B, a function of φ, is the ratio of circulating to incident power.
The maximum of B can be much greater than 1, with higher heights witnessed
for larger values of self-coupling r. Third, the complex input-output transfer
of the MRR usually has magnitude near unity, but its complex argument Φ
depends strongly on φ. This dependence has a slope much greater than one
near resonance that becomes close to zero away from resonance.
The finesse F of the resonator is then defined as the ratio between FSR
and FWHD.
F SR 2π
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F= = . (3.28)
F W HD 2ar
2 arccos
1 + a2 r2
Finesse is an important figure of merit for optical cavities, as it is in essence
the selectivity of that cavity as a filter. In terms of physical significance, it
is roughly 2π times the expected value of round trips taken by a photon
in the cavity before leaving it. An MRR thus increases the effective optical
path experienced by a light wave by a factor proportional to F. When some
detuning is applied to the cavity, it is effectively applied many times to the
circulating lightwave. As seen in Fig. 3.12, small detunings near resonance are
greatly amplified in the overall phase shift with a gain proportional to F. This
increase in sensitivity can be quite extreme, which explains the wide interest
in microrings for biosensing and even single atom sensing [19].
Figure 3.12 The MRR effective phase shift as a function of single-pass phase over a
range of finesse values. A completely decoupled ring has finesse of π (straight line).
As finesse increases, a smaller range of single-pass detuning is required to span an
effective range of π (dotted lines).
The finesse is closely related to the quality (Q) factor of the cavity, which
is the sharpness of a resonance relative to its center frequency. Q factor is a
standard oscillator concept formally defined as the quotient of stored energy
to energy lost per oscillation cycle. This is indeed a close relation to the finesse,
2π times the mean number of round trips made by light in the cavity. The
quality factor of an MRR is expressed
ω0 m · F SR
Q= = = mF, (3.29)
F W HD F W HD
Primer on Photonics 65
nL
m= . (3.30)
λ
The definition of quality factor can alternately be stated as the number
of wave cycles before the amplitude is depleted to 1e of its original value.
We are concerned with ultrafast capabilities of these devices, so the response
bandwidth is an important property.
Q
τ= (3.31)
ω0
1 2πc
B∝ = , (3.32)
τ nLF
where B is bandwidth or bit-rate.
3.4 LASERS
Lasers have revolutionized science, sensing, and communication since their
invention. Many different forms of laser have been created. In general, they
66 Neuromorphic Photonics
consist of an optical gain medium inside of a cavity. The cavity creates feed-
back that is phase dependent, thus favoring one or a small number of discrete
wavelengths. Optical gain takes place through a special light-matter process
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ergy bandgap. Photons with energies less than a bandgap do not interact with
the electronic state of the semiconductor, so that the semiconductor behaves
as a simple dielectric. Photons with enough energy, on the other hand, can be
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Stimulated Emission
Stimulated emission occurs when an incident photon causes an excited electron
to drop to a less energetic band, emitting a photon in the process. Stimulated
emission is important to an understanding of laser dynamics because it results
in the generation of a photon with identical phase, frequency, and direction
to the incident photon. As in electron-photon absorption, the electromagnetic
field of the incident photon resonates with the energy difference between two
possible bands that an electron can occupy. This resonance causes the electron
to vibrate with the same frequency as the incident radiation. Stimulated emis-
sion occurs when the electron which the photon interacts with is already in an
excited state. This electron is perturbed by the incident electric field, causing
it to transition between the energy bands. Since the downward transition of
the electron does not draw energy from the incident electric field, the incident
photon is unchanged by the interaction, and the extra energy associated with
the downward band transition adds to the overall amplitude of the electric
field in the form of an additional photon. Since the recombining electron has
been perturbed by the incident electric field, the generated electromagnetic
field oscillates with the same frequency, phase, polarization, and direction as
the incident photon!
a) b) c)
Ec Ec Ec
h
h h h
h
Ev Ev Ev
Figure 3.13 Light-matter interaction with valence (Ev ) and conduction (Ec ) elec-
tron energy levels. (a) Absorption: an incident photon raises electron energy. (b)
Spontaneous emission: an excited electron falls to the valence energy and emits a
photon. (c) Stimulated emission: an incident photon triggers an excited electron to
release a second photon with identical phase, frequency, and momentum.
cal gain. Indirect bandgap semiconductors have a valence band maximum en-
ergy and conduction band minimum energy appearing at different momentum
states (Fig. 3.14). Both energy and momentum must be conserved in a tran-
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sition, and photons carry relatively little momentum. This momentum must
come from another particle, a phonon, in indirect gap semiconductors. The
three particle electron-photon-phonon interaction is less likely than the two
particle electron-photon interaction, thereby making spontaneous and stimu-
lated emission much stronger in direct gap materials (relative to competing
nonradiative recombinations). Indirect bandgap materials, including silicon
and germanium, are therefore unsuitable for producing practical optical am-
plifiers or lasers.
(a) (b)
-12
A U,K E r A r U.K r
k
Figure 3.14 Band diagrams of (a) silicon and (b) gallium arsenide, showing differ-
ences between indirect and direct bandgaps. Black lines represent edges of allowed
electron and hole states in terms of energy, E, and momentum, k. Gray regions
are band gaps, energies where no states are present. Vertical red arrows represent
the minimum energy of the conduction to valence transition, and the horizontal
blue dashed line is the momentum of the transition for indirect bandgap materi-
als. Adapted and reproduced from Semiconductors: Group IV Elements and III-V
Compounds (1991) by O. Madelung Ref. [20]. With permission of Springer-Verlag.
With these things in mind, optical devices can be classified as active if they
exchange or convert photonic energy with electronic energy, and passive oth-
erwise, although passive devices always have dielectric properties and nonideal
absorptive processes. Naturally, a combination of active and passive devices
is desirable for integration of complete photonic systems, consisting of active
transmitters, passive routing waveguides, and active receivers.
70 Neuromorphic Photonics
Population Inversion
We have seen that photons incident on direct bandgap materials result either
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that waveguide bends, couplers, and filters are very large and lossy compared
to competing platforms.
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6.4
6.2
€
"
~
c
8 6.0
-~
r.;
-'
5.8
5.6
Figure 3.15 Lattice constants and bandgaps of III-V semiconductors. Lines corre-
spond to ternary compounds: solid for direct bandgap, dashed for indirect bandgap.
Areas correspond to quaternary compounds; for example, the gray area indicates
possible alloys of Inx Ga1-x Asy P1-y . Group IV elements Ge and Si are shown as
points. Republished with permission of John Wiley and Sons, Inc., from Fundamen-
tal of Photonics (1991) 1st ed. by B. E. A. Saleh and M. C. Teich Ref. [1]; permission
conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
where G(t) models the gain carrier density, I(t) is the laser intensity, and
A is the gain pumping parameter. τG is the gain medium carrier lifetime,
normalized to the cavity photon lifetime. The photon leakage term, normalized
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This system of equations has two solutions for all values of A, corresponding
to the roots of the second equation. The first solution is ISS = 0, GSS = A,
where there is no optical intensity. The other solution is GSS = 1, ISS = A−1.
Although solutions with negative ISS exist mathematically, they are non-
physical because optical intensity cannot take on negative values.
Stability Analysis
Fixed points can come in different varieties depending on whether nearby
states evolve towards or away from them. This is referred to as stability. For
example, a pencil balancing on its point can be thought of as a dynamical
system with a fixed point, but since this fixed point is unstable, any small
perturbation will make the pencil fall down. To assess stability mathemat-
ically, the system is linearized around fixed points to consider only small
perturbations. The first partial derivatives of f~ with respect to ~x is called the
74 Neuromorphic Photonics
Jacobian matrix, J .
∂ Ġ ∂ Ġ 1+I G
∂G ∂I − −
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J = ˙ = τG τG . (3.40)
∂I ∂ I˙ I G−1
∂G ∂I
I,G
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threshold
GSS
ISS
A
Figure 3.16 Steady state solutions of a simple laser vs. pumping parameter. Blue
lines show gain variable, and red lines show intensity variable. Solid lines indicate
stable fixed points, while dashed lines indicate unstable. Non-physical solutions < 0
are not shown.
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Primer on Photonics 77